By: Scott Hemphill

56 flavors of Pi proudly produced by volunteers to celebrate Pi Day, 2008. (3/14) Don't worry, you don't have to listen to an infinite string of numbers: each reader presents just the first 50 digits in styles of their own choosing. In light of the spirit of this occasion (and the might of our spirited community), this offering makes a gentle exception to the policy of faithfully presenting just the text. This is the real Pi, but served up with a side of sillies -- it's ...

By: Ambrose Bierce

Witty, opinionated alphabetical examples of what Bierce considered poor (American) English and advice on alternatives - entertaining, thought-provoking, occasionally outdated but so interesting to see how style and taste have changed.

By: Mark Twain ; Charles Dudley Warner

The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today is an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that satirizes greed and political corruption in post-Civil War America. The term gilded age , commonly given to the era, comes from the title of this book. Twain and Warner got the name from Shakespeare's King John (1595): To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... is wasteful and ridiculous excess. Gilding a lily, which is already beautiful and not in need of further adornment, is ...

By: Margery Williams

What is REAL? asked the Rabbit one day... Written in 1922, The Velveteen Rabbit , or, How Toys Become Real is the tale of a sweet unassuming toy rabbit who questions what it is to live and to love. It was the first children's title written by Margery Williams (1881 - 1944), who had previously created only for adults. This story eclipsed all others, to become her most famous work, and an ever adored classic for all ages. (Summary written by Marlo Dianne) It was by a sort ...

By: Fay Inchfawn ; Elizabeth Rebecca Ward

Published by the Religious Tract Society in London, The Verse-Book of a Homely Woman is a collection of domestic, spiritual, and fanciful poems from the point of view of a woman, a housewife, and a Christian. The natural, supernatural, and solidly mundane are mixed together as well as separated into two parts: Indoors and Outdoors . Summary by Clarica.

By: Frances Milton Trollope

A villainous vicar insinuates himself into the life of a wealthy but foolish widow, ruining the fortunes and happiness of her three children, until they begin to fight back. Published in 1837 by the mother of the better-known Anthony Trollope, this highly readable romance portrays the evangelical movement of the Anglican church in a shocking light that may remind readers of some of the religious abuses of the present day. (Summary by Angela Rowland)

By: G. Campbell Morgan

These studies in the book of Malachi were delivered as addresses to the students at Mr. Moody’s Bible School in Chicago, and then to my own congregation. They have also appeared in “The Record of Christian Work” in the United States, and in “Out and Out” in England. They are now sent out in a more permanent form, after careful revision, with the prayer that they may be used of God in calling His own children into the place of power without which form is nothing. (Introdu...

By: C.S. Lewis

Spirits in Bondage is C.S. Lewis’s first book and the first of his works to be available in the public domain. It was released in 1919 under the pseudonym of Clive Hamilton and was written in a period of darker thought for C.S. Lewis than was later evidenced in his Christian apologist writings. The darkness of the verse is most evident in Part One (The Prison House), begins to change in the short transitional Part Two (Hesitation) and attains a more hopeful tone in the f...

By: Leolyn Louise Everett

By: Heinrich Hoffmann

Struwwelpeter (Slovenly Peter) is an illustrated collection of humorous children’s poems describing ludicrous and usually violent punishments for naughty behavior. Hoffmann, a Frankfurt physician, wanted to buy a picture book for his son for Christmas in 1844. Not impressed by what the stores had to offer, he instead bought a notebook and wrote his own stories and pictures. While Struwwelpeter is somewhat notorious for its perceived brutal treatment of the erring childre...

By: Joseph Bédier

This is the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Iseult. It is a tale of love, honour, intrigue, betrayal and jealousy, ending ultimately in tragedy. This story predates that of Lancelot and Guinevere, and is one of the most influential romances of the medieval period, inspiring many artists, from story-tellers to painters to composers. (Summary by Joy Chan)

By: Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island is an adventure novel, a thrilling tale of buccaneers and buried gold. Traditionally considered a coming of age story, it is an adventure tale of superb atmosphere, character and action, and also a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality—as seen in Long John Silver—unusual for children's literature then and now. (Summary from wikipedia.org)

By: Joel Chandler Harris

Many readers will already be familiar with Uncle Remus’ favorite animal characters – Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox among them – and some of the popular tales concerning them. (To this day, “tar baby” as an expression for a particularly sticky situation that is almost impossible to solve, has passed into the English language and common use.) Even people who have never read any of these tales will know exactly why you don’t throw a rabbit into a briar patch, mainly because Wa...

By: Henry David Thoreau

Walden by Henry David Thoreau is one of the best-known non-fiction books written by an American. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau’s life for two years, two months, and two days around the shores of Walden Pond. Walden is neither a novel nor a true autobiography, but a social critique of the Western World, with each chapter heralding some aspect of humanity that needed to be either renounced or praised. Along with his critique of the civilized world, Thoreau examines...

By: Henry James

Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father. The book is often compared to Jane Austen's work for the clarity and grace of its prose and its intense focus on family relationships. James was hardly a great admirer of Jane Austen, so ...